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Proactive Teshuva: Paradigms from Maimonides and Rav Kook - Rabbi Anthony Manning
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good evening everybody thank you so much
for coming and thank you to the OU for
uh organizing such a a wonderful evening
this is my first time in uh OU modin uh
it's nice to see some of the modin
friends uh people who live locally yeah
exactly give it a shout out there um and
uh nice to see family as well my
brother-in-law sister-in-law here um and
uh I really I want to talk to you a
little bit about Chua now you might
think that's not really very novel
because that's what Rabbi stand up talk
about uh this time of year but I don't
know about you but I get a little bit
frustrated uh in L uh I I'm I'm sort of
faced with this reality that I'm meant
to be undergoing a process of Chua and
one of the frustrating things I don't
know about you what I find is that I end
up having to kind of do Chua for the
same things that I did Chua for last
year and then the year before and the
year before and it's like that kind of
almost like inevitable like diet that
you're going to go on that you know is
not going to work but you're just going
to do it because you tried it before and
it's not going to work the next time
either and and I feel that there needs
to be something to break out of that
cycle um what I'd like to suggest today
is something a bit more proactive maybe
rather than just trying to say well I'll
try not to do that and I'll try not to
do that I'll try not to do that but to
do something a little bit different um
and I want to make three suggestions
about how we could maybe engage in
something more proactive a uh uh a
venture for the next year a challenge
for the next year a task that we can
take on um and you can choose if you
like any of these three fine if you
don't like them then uh you know find
something else but I feel that there's a
need to do something a little bit more
proactive so let's have a look at this
we have about 40 minutes and uh we we're
not going to look at every single Source
here but I'm going to suggest to you
basically three three models for a
proactive cha based in the rambam and
based in Ru cook so the first thing I'd
like to do is maybe just mention that we
we look we need to look again at the
concept of AA I don't like the word sin
sin sounds terribly Catholic just like
confession to break out of those those
translations but at the end of the day
we do feel think about AA about missing
the mark also the idea of missing a
Target in a very different way to
Christianity and we're often I think
overwhelmed with Christian overtones in
the way we think about these things we
regard AA sin as an inevitable reality
of The Human Condition and therefore
there's no there's no point feeling bad
about the fact that in principle we do
Aus it's built in it's baked in it's not
something that ruined the system and I
think that's very very important and if
you're looking for a book that that
really develops these ideas Rabbi doid
bashevkin wrote a book a few years ago
it's not new anymore but it's very much
worth buying called
sin goog it's a bit of a kichic title
sinagogue okay um and I brought you a
reference to it there sin and failure in
Jewish thought and there he approaches
many different paradigms of and Chua
that we don't tend to study as much in
the thought of reab nman of brov in kot
inis in sod in ruk you see has AIC bent
RAB bashevkin also has an excellent
podcast which I'm sure many people are
familiar with called 1814
18 and then f r t y where he interviews
lots of very interesting guests about
lots of topics and he has a lot to say
about those things as well and one of
the things that's flagged there is
Source number one which when you think
about it for a few minutes really
changes our the whole way we look at
this so if you look here in number one
let's look with me together in sanedrin
it's quite a well-known
mid that first Friday that first y y uh
the we had was a very very busy day and
the midash goes through and says what
was happening on that very first day
that Friday when Man was created
sh so the first hour of the day the
beginning of the day so God collects all
the materials obviously this is not none
of this is meant to be physical literal
it's meant to be representative of
what's going on God collects the
materials the raw materials to create
Mankind
shne in the second hour mankind is if
you like is formulated and by the way
there are many many different midrashic
understandings as to how Adam and work
were they created together were they
created apart were they meant to be
created apart and they were created
together that's not our topic for today
let's just take mankind as mankind man
and
woman so the third hour the mankind if
you like was spread out the limbs were
stretched out ready to go revered in the
fourth hour of the day n the Nish was
like injected almost like a an injection
into the body uh and the mankind came
alive
in the fifth hour mankind was already up
and
about so the sixth hour he called the
names of all of the different animals as
it says in that that Adam named the
different
and in the sixth in the seventh hour
Adam and K were introduced to each other
as as
partners in the eighth
hour literally two went into bed and
four came out meaning Cen and he were
born as it were whatever this means
mically speaking in that se in that
eighth hour so now they're in the Garden
of
Eden in the ninth hour they were given
the command don't eat from the
tree in the 10th hour they ate from the
tree didn't take them very
long in the 11th Hour n they were judged
in the 11th hour
and in the in the 12th hour they were
given their marching orders and off they
go busy Friday you think your Fridays a
busy okay this is busy Friday the point
here though is that the sin the of Adam
and K is not something that happened
later to interrupt to destroy the
paradise of Gan aen the of Adam and was
part of the seven days of creation it's
baked into creation it's not something
that they did later and I brought you in
the footnote there that the uh you know
the dating of many of the Christian
models actually understands that the the
mankind came much later I brought here
Archbishop James Usher that says the
creation was on October the 28th 404 BC
and the sin of Adam was on November the
10th whatever that means okay you know
the point here is the Christians don't
see sin as part of the makeup of
creation but we really really do and
even more remarkably look at this number
two the the end the climax the CH climax
of that we
beg what are we trying to get back to we
want to get back to that K moment I'm
not talking about grape juice here
okayish we want to be like adish we want
to do Chua so that we can be like Adam
but like Adam
when and this is what it says
we want to be back to the K which K the
Kem of when we got thrown out we want to
be like Adam and after the that's a
remarkable thing the idea that you can
start a game that we can mess it up and
yet be able to start all over again to
do Chua that's what we're trying to get
to which is you would have thought that
we'd want to be like Adam and before the
that's not how it is and I brought you a
line here from elel who says when he
created man God gave him a secret and
that secret was not how to begin but how
to begin again and and therefore I think
as a as a framing for this whole topic
we maybe need to look again at AA as not
not part of our inherent failing but as
part of our inherent makeup um and
obviously we can do better and we can
correct and we can grow but the idea of
being part of our Essence is I think
baked into Jewish thought that's the
first so now I want to present very
briefly three different ways that maybe
we can think more proactively about Chua
and the first one is quite welln and I
want to use R Aon lienin uh to to to to
flesh this out a little bit is the idea
of doing Chua to something and not
simply Chua from something the rambam in
hilas Chua pivots in the middle of hilas
Chua which actually the middle of hilas
Chua is where he talks about free will
his philosophical section of Hil kashua
but at the beginning he's giving a very
classic idea of how we view Chua look at
number
four what is
CH the first thing of Chu is I have to
get rid of try and leave behind the a
lot of people don't realize they often
Trot out well what does the rambam say
Chua is the classic three you have to
regret what you did you have to confess
what you did and you have to resolve for
the future that's actually only chapter
one of Hil cha in chapter two he adds a
fourth element which is it's all very
well regretting confessing and resolving
but you have to actually do something to
let go you have to change something do
something different so it's not just
going to repeat itself again but you're
still moving
away he should leave he should leave
behind his
way and then he gets into his three you
have to regret what you did and confess
what you did and resolve for the future
so the in this moment could say yes
that's a real tuba that's the beginning
of H but by the end of hila the ramb
must pivoted to something quite
different turn over the page to page two
please says the ramb in number
five look how amazing CH
is completely different Focus it's not
you're trying to get away from something
it's you're trying to get towards
something it's m it brings you forward
it brings you closer he says to the
make CH towards go
towards you have not yet come to
me it's
all it's all language of moving towards
never not moving again away from we're
not trying to leave
behind if he says a person could do CH
beat it back it's me that you're coming
to says
God it brings closer those who are far
just
yesterday this person was rejected
before God M he was disgusting on some
level Etc and I just brought you I'm not
going to read all theim but 6 S8 and Nim
from tanak from the na'vi that all talk
about going away a cha
away that's number six
you have to get away from something
number
eight Etc but whereas 10 11 12 and 13
are the other kind of chuva the hasem
you have to do Chua to shua eliu is AD
etc etc and therefore clearly there are
these two paradigms there's nothing new
here this is quite well known that there
are two types of chuva um and I brought
you if if You' like to frame the
question a small piece by uh Rabbi Tas
here Rabbi Michael T in number 14 It's
relatively easy to understand if not
necessarily to accomplish what one must
do to engage in the first type of CHA
discussed here namely as outlined by the
authorities to recognize one's
transgression regret it verbalize his
confession commit to avoid repeating it
in the future what must be done however
to achieve the goal of the second type
of chuba establishing a closeness with
Hashem is less obvious what exactly
should one be doing in order to build
this desired relationship the question
is compounded by the fact that as
indicated by Renu Yona one can be
successful in terms of the first goal
that is his past transgressions can be
forgiven and any punishments previously
deserved set aside but yet still not be
anywhere near where he wants to be in
terms of the connection to Hashem what
then should this person be doing and I
think that's an important thing for us
to think about because we often really
just get bogged down in the cha from and
we don't actually engage proactively in
the cha to because it's much more
difficult and I brought you four or five
quotes here from R of which we're not
going to read all of them but he has a a
very beautiful essay in which is
reprinted in the in the Magid book
repentance and return developing a teror
personality and and I brought you a few
extracts from this let's just look at a
few together um and hopefully you'll be
able to take this forward look look at
more of what he says and see how it
applies in your own life and your family
life there is number 15 there is however
an alternative form of CH which is not
related directly to sin not an outgrowth
of evil but rather one that takes place
within a religious and spiritual vacuum
it occurs not in the context of one's
relation to God but rather within the
context of a lack of relation to God in
fact this type of tuver grows out of
one's perception of that lack within
this track a person is neither separated
from God by a barrier constructed of
sins nor does he cleave to God he is
simply dis dissociated he's not engaged
in agonized interlocking combat with God
in a sort of hesel sty
nor does he wrestle with his conscience
rather he's oblivious and insensitive to
the presence of God that being the case
is Chua Bears a very different character
it's not chuva in relation to sin but
chuva in response to a life that is
insensitive to sin God and one's
relationship to him are not the focal
points in one's life at the epicenter of
his being but are most a kind of
peripheral presence a set of parameters
defining one's beings to the extent that
there is a sin here it is the sin of
of forgetting of being indifferent of
being insensitive of being you know
lacking in an awareness of what is even
uh even not there in our lives and and
he focuses in here because this is the
community he's speaking to in number 17
to the religious Zionist community and
the and what he calls the Centrist
Orthodox Community the Yu Community we
all we all know who he's talking to so
look what he says in number 17 I believe
that the sin lurking at the door of the
Centrist Orthodox or religious Zionist
Community the danger which confronts us
and of which we need to be fully aware
is precisely the danger of sh a
forgetting of being unaware of being
oblivious unlike other communities when
he's talking obviously about the k
Community this is a community which is
not so susceptible to a VOD desora in
his extension now again he's not saying
everyone else is doing a Vora he's
saying that there are other communities
that see things in very clear black and
white terms this is right this is wrong
if you don't agree with me you're a
heretic okay that's not who we he says
are that's other people and in we don't
have those challenges that black and
white which can lead to ultimately to a
very kind of fiery aod zaro that burns
everything up attitudes the rambam
battled against such as Superstition and
gross or primitive conceptions of God
because it meaning the modern Orthodox
or religious SST Community is more
sophisticated intellectually religiously
philosophically unfortunately however if
it is very very susceptible to the
extended or lacking the imminent sense
of God felt so deeply keenly and
pervasively in other parts of the
halachically committed Jewish World
elsewhere he talks about and it's based
in uh in alv Rabin nasan that you know
reab nakan kind of has it but he wasn't
the first to say it that we're walking
down this narrow bridge and what's on
either side of the bridge so one side is
a Chasm which leads to Fire and the
other side is is a Chasm which leads to
ice and the danger on this bridge is you
could fall over one side or the other
the side that veers towards the fire
let's call that the right wing is a side
that veers towards aod zoraa whereas
everything becomes more and more black
and white clearer and clearer than
everyone's in in or out it's very binary
and that at the end of the day leads to
a a he says a fire everything gets burnt
up no one's good enough everybody's
judged say the other side is the sin
which he's saying is more likely to be
the sin of the Centrist Orthodox
Community it leads to a place of ice
which is kind of a frozen C sort of
ambivalence is like everything is a mlus
at the end of the day you don't really
know what God is at the end of the day
what do you really saying when you even
say the word God you don't really know
we don't really know anything and that
itself leads to a place of Frozen kind
of heretical stasis he says obviously
they're the extremes but they're
extremes that we need to kind of balance
and he's here saying that the Chua that
the Rel the Centrist Orthodox religious
zence community he says he's most
focused on and he wrote this I don't
know 20 years ago 30 years ago I don't
think it's much different uh today is a
cha which really needs to come closer to
God to move towards it's a Chua towards
not a cha away from as much the Centrist
just end of number 17 the cist Orthodox
Community is one to which the danger of
distance from God is indigenous and
endemic in part this is a result of the
link this community has to some extent
ideologically to some extent
existentially to the broader General
secular Community around it the secular
world is by definition not so much a
world of sin per se but a world of being
distant from God of simply not
recognizing him having no links and no
relation it's very interesting when you
look at the secular world so some parts
of the religious community say a world
of world of AA world of sin well that
feeds exactly the same narrative whereas
he's saying really we look at it as a
word of distance and the more we connect
with that outside world the more distant
we ourselves become um look at number 18
and then we'll move on we need to be
aware of this sin at our door because
only to the extent that we're aware of
it we'll be able to cope with it if
we're to engage in cha that is
particularly relevant to ourselves it is
perhaps even more than the Chua of
repentance which is at the context of
our relationship with God but it's the
cha of return now how do you do this I'm
not entirely sure but I want to make a
suggestion I I was listening I find
myself also you know challenged very
much in this area I'm a bit of a litvac
and it's everything's kind of rational
and Etc and I think that there are uh
real uh Avenues which are open to us now
to to to deepen that sense of movement
towards I listen to a podcast recently
um by Rabbi Scott Khan he has a podcast
called the Orthodox conundrum I'm sure
many people are familiar with it very
very interesting uh I don't always agree
with everything that's said there but
like that's fine he doesn't care whether
I agree or not I was actually
interviewed on his podcast I didn't even
agree with everything I said on his
podcast but uh but but that's a separate
issue um but he interviewed Rabbi David
Aron um and I I I I read Rabbi eron's
books or some of them many years ago and
I just happen to be listening to this
podcast and he's just so infectious with
a sense of love a sense of connection a
sense of wanting to talk talk about God
wanting to be involved in thinking about
God and not being bogged down in the
well you don't know really what you're
talking about philosophically and and
therefore I think one of the things that
one could do if one wanted to do is
really dive deep into Rabbi eron's
material read his books listen to his
podcasts read his stuff online Etc and
and he speaks a different kind of
language which I think is the language
that Rabbi Rin is is trying to ask us to
speak a little bit more um and I think
that's one area that one could really
proactively engage in more God talk I I
like the fact that uh he mentioned there
that what did the Babylonian amim call
God what was their name for God and the
answer was Rah if you said AB instead
of you
say it's actually then you made the
because is the name of God the loving
one the loved one how often do we relate
to God even the word god is so Laden
with connotations which maybe don't help
us in this area um but Rahman is a
different kind of thing so again I I
don't know whether you need to become
Aid or walk Barefoot through the forest
that's not you don't have to do that to
be aid but what I'm just saying but I
think this is an area where one could
really make a resolution that one's
whole life one's not really been
connected with this area of Torah this
is the year to do it this is the year to
really throw oneself in as I said at the
beginning to these alternative
narratives ofas of C of sh of R of luin
which is remarkable Etc so that's one
suggestion suggestion number two let's
look at RAV cook a very different
suggestion turn to page four please so
RAV cook obviously has a lot to say
about a lot of different things and I
want to just focus on one thing that he
talks
about which is the
importance of learning cabala of
learning a system gosh of learning A
system that will link up all of the
details that will give us a structure
that will help us to fit all of the
particular aspects of Judaism which are
in our lives into something which fits
together in a in a much bigger way I
once heard from Rabbi tats many years
ago something similar to this where he
said one of the challenges that we have
is that you know Tor is called an eight
it's called a tree and a tree is a very
organic by definition structure it has a
a trunk it has branches subbranches
Twigs leaves and the leaves themselves
have the most beautiful delicate
structures fractal structures often and
what we often see when it comes to
Judaism is is random leaves certainly
when I teach students that came out of
high school and the truth is After High
School for most people there's like a
three or four year window where you can
really get to grips with these things
and then you just get kind of frozen
into wherever you were before and you
can break out of that but it's hard but
we tend to see little leaves all over
the place there's a detail here there's
a detail there there's a detail here
there's a detail there having a system
that can actually put that together and
see a structure how everything is
connected I remember he told me that
they used to go to a shra of Simas on
Nazi shabas I think he said he was and
rasman used to say to the guys what do
you want to talk about so one guy would
say I want to talk about uh why good
things happen to bad people and why bad
things happen to good people okay and
one person would say I want to talk
about the status of uh mats on second
day yon in you know I just make that up
whatever they would all talk about some
completely disperate thing and rasan
would say give a Shear that connected
all of the parts and when they asked him
like how did you do that he says well I
just looked at where each detail was on
that tree of a Torah and I talked about
I talked about the one thing which was
the point at which they all intersected
the point that that they all came out of
and and that obviously covers all of
them now to have that kind of structure
in front of you is a wonderfully
inspirational thing but it's very hard
to get so have a look at what Rook says
here in number
20 the of the generation leading up to
Mah this is a very big theme in cook
it's not because they've sunk to a low
level it's because they're already on a
higher level and the people the young
people especially around us are no
longer satisfied with the kind of trit
Torah that we sometimes give out they
need something more they need something
better they demand to
understand how do all the details
connect with the general principles
the because no detail which is left
unconnected with a structure is ever
going to really satisfy you it's always
going to leave you with a feeling of
it's just like a detail these rabbis
they just got so bogged down in detail
details and that's frustrating and and
by the way the church has been throwing
this at us as an accusation for
Millennia that you're you're too bogged
down in the details and sometimes we
really hear that and Rook says they yes
because we need a
structure if we could just he said get
to a
Torah the Torah that you can really grow
a soul
from if we could just see all the
connections with the specifics and the
details then CH real
CH and a universal Improvement in the
whole
world that comes with it and through
that that would be you be able to
realize that you've got to get past the
details the important details but you
got to see the structure let's carry on
we're just going to read this Source in
deta however
T so because we've been negligent we've
been lazy and as Educators sometimes
that this inner
Torah that needs that requires it
demands its own
elevation is not being brought out in
the world
appropriately that's why this claim this
demand for structure for is is coming
out where all the details fit into a
super structure
and that hasn't happened
yet and this leads to a terrible
devastation in people's spiritual
lives we need to have a a system a a
cure we need to find a spiritual
cure we have to give a we have to give
an injection to the spiritual um if you
like Drive of people
so that all the details in our life all
the details in our thought
processes will be will be presented in a
way which is straight forward which we
understand which in a way which people
normal regular people understand not
some huting uh deeply complex uh 50-year
lim but something people people can
understand but
as that will rejuvenate life spiritual
life and then a real Chu a real genuine
Chua like we said before a Chua to will
be able to bear fruit and and later he
talks about the the the one way of doing
this is by learning cabala and sometimes
I feel we we we sort of take the easy
route on cabala and I I mean I'm
speaking to you as someone who is never
really grappled seriously with Cala
although has got more into it over the
last few years um you don't have to be
over 40 and and even if you did that's
not necessarily a problem for everybody
in this room you don't have to be over
40 to learn cabala and you don't have to
be flying through the air or whatever
you think cabala is a system which uh is
now available to us there are many many
uh excellent resources on this online in
books many re that teach this uh it's
not an esoteric topic anymore and
therefore RAV cook is urging us to
engage people
with even though paint these in a in
these are the deepest most esoteric
Secrets the the secrets of Creation The
Secrets of the Chariot ofal so ruk says
that's only if you're applying them in a
practical level practical cabala we're
not trying to do practical cabala and
cure people and heal people people or
whatever you think practical cabala is
he says today in our world da we need
that kind of complexity that kind of
learning and he gives a call in his
number 22 he says he's calling out to
all the teachers all the people who
represent all you teachers people who
are
influenced we are the ones who have
sinned we have learned or I think he
means we taught the
we've given all our and our and all
these wonderful
things we've written and we've designed
new structures
in we've forgotten about God and the
power of
God we haven't listened to the Nim um
and he goes on to talk about the idea of
bringing out the r Torah the secrets of
Torah the the the cabalistic Torah and
if you just turn to page five just for a
second uh he has a uh he talks about a
weariness that comes out of of of dry
narrow Torah he talks about and in the
source the large source that we didn't
look at in depth he talks about a sort
of uh desiccation that people just learn
gamorra and gamorra and gamorra and
gamorra and gamarra and he says you need
to learn that stuff but it's it's it's
you can't be the the sum total of what
you're learning it'll just leave you dry
and then eventually the going from being
dry you'll become angry and bitter and
negative and he he charts the whole
course of what we see in front of our
eyes that people are just not getting
the cpuk not getting the Torah that they
really need to take them through and
actually very interestingly RAV cook
turned to publicizing cabala when he was
in the middle of a terrible War Ral cook
was in London in 1916 and 1917 I'm not
going through the whole story of how he
was stranded there but he was uh he was
the Rob of the aimul in in the East End
of London which is now mosque but that's
a story of how Anglo Jury has moved on
or or England has moved on I should say
and the Jews with it um but he he he
they were being bombed they were being
bombed aerial bombardments from
Zeppelins and and all of that kind of
stuff that the Germans had and he was
sitting in the cellar of the eight of
the makik not the makik in the East End
and and he writes there and I put a
couple of quotes on page five life has
plummeted to pits teeming with the
darkest evil and ruin it's hard for us
to remember remember quite how
devastating the first world war was for
the Jewish community and the general
community in Europe because we now see
the first world war through the prism of
the second world war which obviously was
unimaginable in the first world war but
in the first world war Jewish
communities were and general communities
in Europe were dislocated in the most
difficult and horrendous ways 60-some
thousand men were killed just on the
first day of the battle of the S it it's
almost impossible to get your mind
around that and this is what was
filtering back to people back home and
and he basically says their regular
Torah study just doesn't do it he says
regular Torah addresses the laws of a
functioning and orderly Society but it's
tone deaf to the imbalance and anxiety
of a terrifying and chaotic world you
need a different kind of Torah if you're
living in a war you just can't Trot out
the same thing and therefore R cook says
we need to return to what he calls tah
anista um the Torah of cabala and that's
where he wrote in London he wrote is Rin
his safer on the mystical meanings of
the letters of the alipate he didn't he
didn't write it when he was sitting in
ER Israel imbibing the a ER Israel he
sat writing it in the East End under
bombardment from Zeppelins dropping
bombs on his because he said I just
can't learn regulator now I have to
learn something else and therefore I
think the second possible thing we might
do this year is say this is the year
when we're really going to get to grips
with what is cabala it's a big system
out there it's obviously got a lot to
say uh do we really understand it if we
think we don't like it do we we really
understand what we don't like uh and
maybe that's something that will take us
in a different direction and leave us
next year uh in a rather different
position than we find ourselves this
year so that's my suggestion number two
the rav cook is saying get a system see
the bigger picture join up all the
leaves to something which is more
systemic and and in that sense much more
satisfying third option completely
different well maybe it's not completely
different but it's it it comes across as
different when the rambam talks about
Chua he is very keen to stress that we
can't just do chuva for our actions we
need to do Chua for our mind we need to
get our mind into a different gear and
that has all sorts of of of applications
uh 25 is quite a famous Source 25
passage from hilas Chua where he says we
don't just have to do Chua for our
actions but all our our inclinations if
we get too angry or if we're too greedy
or if we're too jealous etc etc all of
these are things which we need to do
chubba for because at the end of the day
the mindset the psychology is what's
driving the actions and if you can't
change the psychology then you're not
going to have much luck with the actions
and okay that's easier said than done I
think we know that to be true and he
says this is the hardest thing of all uh
to actually uh change this but the posic
he gives is V elhem he says that's more
of a proactive tuver of changing one's
mindset but he goes further he basically
says that we can actually change our
mindset to have a deeper understanding
of everything we do let's look at number
26 for a
second a person has to try and get their
mind in a different gear later so that
they understand it's that God is really
everything the
sh and and when we sit when we stand
when we speak it it it has that God
Focus Kate said what do I mean he
says when you do your business when
you're in the shop when you're working
in the office as a lawyer or whatever
you are
or or you're earning your
living that don't just say well I need I
need I need money I need to ear a
living have a he says that you're doing
this for a higher need you you need to
buy
food because the work is enabling you to
gain the things that you need in life
which are things that enhance your life
enormously your family the house that
you live in the community Etc again no
big Kim here but it's a mindset he
says when you're eating and drinking or
engaged in sexual
life to say oh this I love this honey I
love this you know cereal and I really
like having these relationships da da da
because you like it but do it because it
it's good for your body it's good for
your health it's good for your
relationship it's good for your mind for
your mentality for your Psych meaning
have that higher level of intention in
the things that we do and and he
actually spells this out in a much more
detailed way we're going to see inim in
a second and this is also true and here
is more ofes in
ourv because he says it's not just good
enough to do the Mitzvah we owe it to
ourselves to understand why we're doing
the Mitzvah a mitzvah for the rambam is
instrumental it's not end in itself and
this is where actually he'll differ from
the cabalists in a significant way
because the cabalists will say that
shaking a lulav is going to do something
in the in the cosmic realm which is
going to make that difference the
shaking itself makes the difference and
the rambam as a rationalist will say no
shaking the lulav will help you get your
mind in the right gear where you'll have
a deeper understanding of reality and a
closer connection with God but the
Mitzvah is a means to an end look in
Number 27 consequently he says is a
cause for every commandment every
positive or negative precept serves a
useful object in some cases the
usefulness is evident EG the prohibition
of murder and theft in others the
usefulness is not so evident EG the
prohibition of enjoying the fruit of a
tree at the first three years or of a
Vineyard in which other seeds have been
growing those Commandments whose object
is generally evidently called Bish and
those whose object is not generally
clear is called thus they say in
relation to the words of Moses it is no
who this week's para coming up it's not
an empty thing and Kaz say it is not in
vain and if it is in vain if you don't
know why you're doing it it's only so
through you it's because you don't know
why you're doing it so learn why you're
doing it that is to say the giving of
these Commandments is not a vain thing
without any useful objects and if it
appears so to you in any commandment it
is due to the deficiency in your
comprehension and therefore he enjoins
us he encourages us he he he he excites
us about what he
calls which is more philosophical which
is do we get our head around the
underlying meanings of why we do the
Mitzvah we do and there are many places
we can look for this we can look in
theim which you know we've just been
quoting and which we'll quote in a
minute we can look in r i remember when
I was a student I brought so and gave me
or I bought myself a copy
ofv when's the last time you readv it's
it's a big thick read and it you know
the English translation is a bit like
the German very long sentences and all
that but at the end of the day it's a
really inspirational really exciting
book because RAV H presents in the 19th
century a rereading of mitzvot
explaining why they make sense to a
modern person and much of what RAV H
says in the 19th century speaks to us
still as moderns in the 21st but of
course Rabbi saaks and others have gone
past that and taken that into the modern
era as well but this idea that mitzvot
are not an end in themselves but are
means to an end is actually I think a
very important thing and I brought you
here in Source 28 which I'm I'm going to
finish with we'll finish in a few
minutes um he goes through quite
famously he says there are actually four
levels which turn out to be five of of
personal Perfection and he says you
really need to kind of put a bit of
thought into this we need to really have
a plan as to how we're going to do this
and he has to be done in order he says
first of all he says we've got to get
our money in order because if our
money's all over the place and we can't
make a living and and things are very
difficult then we're not going to have
the brain to focus Etc so obviously this
is often very difficult but he says
first of all we got to get our our
financial life in order then he says the
second kind of perfection is to get our
physical life in order like he says
don't just eat the foods that you think
are tasty but eat the foods that are
healthy and get yourself into some kind
of regime which is going to make you
healthy in body healthy in mind that is
a necessary prerequisite to even doing
the Mitzvah then he says when you're
getting into the Mitzvah actually
understand what the Mitzvah are for what
they're doing what they're trying to
produce what they're aiming for how are
they trying to move you in what
direction why you're doing them and the
reason the next level is because the
next level of perfection is intellectual
Perfection learn and let me just read
this The Fourth Kind The Fourth Kind of
perfection is the True Perfection of man
the possession of the highest
intellectual faculty the possession of
such Notions which lead to the true
metaphysical opinions as regards God
what does that mean in real time let's
say there are 25 Big M Israel issues
issues in Jewish thought and we kind of
have a vague feeling of we understand
more or less what they are what is God's
Providence and and what is God's
knowledge and what does it mean God is
one and what does it mean that God has
no body etc etc do we really have a
really strong understanding on each one
of these that someone says to us well
what does the Torah say about this okay
there are four opinions on this issue
there's the this and the and there's the
ran there ran and then you have like a a
neatly packaged bit of your brain where
this part of Mich is fits into and you
can get it out when you need it that's a
great thing it's not rocket science you
just have to do it if it if it interests
you and he's saying that's what he wants
you to do he wants you to move to that
intellectual Perfection where you've
really got your head around some of
these issues okay you won't come to
clear answers that's okay you don't need
to have clear answers you need to have a
clear structure in a sense it's also
presenting a structure but differ of
cabala different kind of structure and
he says at the end of the day the true
true True Perfection and this is where
people get the rambam wrong he's not
just a brain in a box he doesn't want
you to be an intellectual in an ivory
Tower so you look in the last paragraph
in 28 the prophet doesn't content
himself with explaining the knowledge of
God is the highest level of perfection
he says however the man can only glory
in the knowledge of God in the knowledge
of his ways and his attributes his
actions and therefore copying God Mish
St but doing it having built up all
these levels of perfection Financial
physical Mitzvah intellectual and then
actually being to live a life which
is of of mirroring God's actions and
therefore I I this third suggestion is
that maybe this is the year that we
finally get our head
around is in all its excitement in all
its complication because you know unless
you set out to do it then it'll never
happen so I've given you three ideas
maybe these are just my personal the
ideas that excite me and you can go away
and say well I listen to Manning and
that's all very well three ideas left me
cold but you know something it could be
this one this one this one and this one
okay go for it that's great but the
three ideas I've suggested here is
either this could be a year of thinking
more about kidas more about God more
about connection with God and I
mentioned Rabbi David Aaron and getting
into his work and he's just like a a
gateway to a whole world of that kind of
understanding that's one possibility a
second one is a this is the year we're
going to get into Jewish mysticism into
cabala to really understand what it
means it's not just shallow it's not
just what maybe think it means this is
the year for that or maybe this is the
year that we get really into M stal and
there are so many things that we can
learn and the most scary of all perhaps
is that this piece of black plastic uh
that you carry around with you has most
of the answers like to what you're
trying to learn just on here uh so you
know we can't even go to shamim after
120 years and say well I didn't have a
school I didn't have a class it's all on
here folks sorry um so not all but but a
lot of it so anyway these these are some
thoughts uh as we go into into the the
Y it should be a year of renewal
nationally it should be a year of for
all of am Israel and everyone should get
the Yeshua and the hatah that they need
in every aspect of of their lives and uh
we should have
a and we should be able to meet next
year and say we've achieved some of the
things we set out to achieve this year
and we're going going to go even higher
thank you R sh and thank you again
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